Dream Big Profile: Katie Chain




Ohio State senior pitcher Katie Chain is the Buckeyes all-time leader in wins, strikeouts, and shutouts.  But it's the one victory off the field that Chain relishes more than any win or strikeout on the softball diamond:  Beating cancer.

Back in the summer of 2000 after her freshman season at Ohio State, Chain's aunt noticed a mole and suggested that she have it looked at.  Chain decided to wait until December because she admits that "I'm not a big needle person."  When Chain finally went to the doctor, the mole was removed, but it was discovered to have melanoma in it.

The cause of the cancer: too many trips to the tanning salon.

"My doctor told me that I probably would have gotten it 20 or 30 years down the road," Chain said, "but I got it when I was 20 because I went tanning."

During that uneasy time when she found that she had been diagnosed with cancer, Chain points to her parents, James and Elly, as a calming influence along with her sister Becky.

"My parents did a really good job of making it sound a lot less scary," Chain said.  "They said that they're just going to go in and take it out and I'll be fine, and they caught it in time and everything's okay.  And then, after they took it out, I went to an oncologist, and that was really scary.  That's when it really hit me how serious it was.

"My parents made everything seem so normal and I know they were pretty scared.  When I first realized what the situation was, I could tell that they were scared too, but they really helped me through it.  My sister also did a really good job of making it seem that everything was okay.  I talked to her a lot during that time."

In January of 2001, Chain had to go back to the doctor to make sure that all the cancer was removed.  Luckily, it was or else she likely would have had to undergo radiation or chemotherapy.

When she finally got back to the softball field, Chain wasn't worried if she would be able to perform at the same level that earned her Ohio State's Pitcher of the Year as a freshman, instead she fretted about something entirely different.

"I was kind of worried about the fact that I'd be playing and I didn't want my sunscreen to wear off, Chain said.  "I was scared that on hot days, I would get tan or something.  When we would go in February - just a month or two after (the mole was removed) - to these warm places that were really sunny, that made me really nervous."

Despite her fears, Chain went on to have arguably her best season in a Buckeye uniform as a sophomore.  She came back from cancer in resounding fashion to finish with a record of 23-6, a 0.74 earned run average, and 184 strikeouts in 189.67 innings to earn First Team All-Big Ten honors.

What's more is that while Chain came to realize how important family and friends were to her, she also used softball to provide herself with an escape.  

"I started looking more at my friendships and how important my friends were, especially the people who supported me like my roommates," Chain said.  "It also made me thankful that I have something like softball that I really enjoy playing and have something like that, that I can retreat to."

Chain's bad fortune also had an indirectly positive effect on her teammates.

"Quite a few of them had been going tanning and stopped because that was pretty much the reason that I got skin cancer," Chain said.  "A lot of them stopped going tanning and everybody started wearing sunscreen."

Chain success on the field continued last season when she went 21-6 and set a single-season Ohio State record with 222 strikeouts to help lead the Buckeyes to the Big Ten Tournament title game for the first time in school history and the NCAA Tournament for just the second time.

At the start of this season, Chain was already the school's all-time leader in wins, strikeouts, and shutouts and has since added to that total and now has 66 career wins, 672 strikeouts, and 25 shutouts, respectively.

Although Chain's playing days are nearly finished, she already has her future planned.  Chain will graduate this June with a degree in special education and then it's immediately on to graduate school at the end of the month where she will focus on hearing impairment with the hope of eventually teaching deaf children.  Her passion for this began some time back when in her spare time, Chain would accompany her mother, who taught disabled kids, to school.

"My mom teaches adaptive PE which is teaching physical education to disabled kids," Chain said.  "When I was growing up, I always went with her when we didn't have school just for something different.  I got to know some of her students pretty well and it was a fun experience.  In high school, I started working with some of her deaf students a little closer and I really liked that.  I really didn't know any sign language, but it just always kind of fascinated me.

"And then, I had a deaf professor this past fall and he's actually the one that runs the graduate school program here.  So I had a meeting with him and I really enjoyed him.  I'm looking forward to working with him and him teaching me sign language and all that kind of stuff."

As for the cancer that once befell her, Chain goes to the hospital twice a year for regular check-ups where she gets blood work and chest x-rays to make sure that everything is copasetic.  If the doctors see a bad mole or one that has the potential to get dire, they'll remove it.

Chain has shown that despite going through a traumatic situation, the desire to succeed coupled with hard work can make anyone triumphant.

"My advice for young kids; don't ever give up," Chain said.  "At one point, I almost quit pitching because I wasn't very good.  But, I just kept working hard.  I enjoyed it so I worked hard at it, and I got far because I loved playing.  I think a lot of times, people forget that the reason they play the sport they do, is because they like it.  Not for the scholarship, not for the awards and everything, play it because you like it.  If you ever stop liking it, that's when you know you need to stop."